More On Andrew Gold

It took a couple days. But, finally, news sources are reporting the death of singer [lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Andrew Gold[/lastfm]. I blogged about it over the weekend. I thought you may be interested in some background on Gold, and hear from the man himself. Did you know he not only wrote the theme song to “The Golden Girls,” but “Mad About You” as well? And, who WAS the “Lonely Boy” in his big hit? Many have asked! Andrew answers.

Andrew Gold, best known for his hit songs “Thank You for Being a Friend” and “Lonely Boy,” died Friday of a heart attack. He was 59. According to the Los Angeles Times, he’d been treated for cancer recently but was said to be “doing well.”

A versatile singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, the L.A. native was lead guitarist and musical director of Linda Ronstadt’s band during her Top 40 heyday in the ’70s. That success led to a contract with Asylum Records, where his second album, What’s Wrong With This Picture, spun off the Top 10 smash “Lonely Boy.” A year later “Thank You for Being a Friend” went Top 25 — and later found new life as the theme for TV’s Golden Girls.

Music came naturally to the son of acclaimed Hollywood composer Ernest Gold — best known for scoring Exodus and It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World — and singer-actress Marni Nixon, the well-known “voice dubber” who sang the parts for Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Natalie Wood in West Side Story.

In recent years, Gold had fronted a Byrds tribute band. His resume also includes the ’80s band Wax (with Graham Gouldman) and the ’70s vocal group Bryndle (with Wendy Waldman, Karla Bonoff and fellow Ronstadt band member Kenny Edwards).